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After an album where Hedley confronted stormy weather, the Vancouver pop rockers are back in full force with their latest effort Wild Life.

There is no amount of questioning for the Juno-winning band on Wild Life (out this week), starting with the rambunctious and expletive-laden call to arms of Anything, where frontman Jacob Hoggard invites his fans to declare at the top of their lungs that they will not be put down.

“Uh-uh, f--- that/I can do anything!” is bound to be on the tip of many a youngster’s tongue this fall, less an anti-authority statement than a life-affirming slogan.

If the previous album Storms was “music for tough times,” as guitarist Dave Rosin recently explained in an interview with The Vancouver Sun, Wild Life is music for good times.

“We went through a lot,” Rosin said when asked about the main difference between Storms and Wild Life. “Our bass player (Tommy Mac) was battling cancer. It’s something we didn’t talk about very much.

“Now he’s cancer-free and has changed his life around. But it was a really crazy situation to go through. We’ve all had somebody in our lives affected by that disease, but to have it happen so close to us and have that very real conversation with our friend — we really took that lead on that record: ‘Every storm’s got an end’.”

For Rosin, Wild Life is all about channelling positivity and appreciating the little things around you. It’s about finding a way to always see the light at the end of the tunnel.

In essence, Wild Life isn’t much different than any of Hedley’s other albums. It’s about four guys whose forward momentum is still a force to be reckoned with despite their detractors.

“We strive for forward motion at all times,” Rosin said.

“We don’t ever really stop. I think that’s kind of where we’ve found the creative fire between us. We’re going on being a band for 10 years. We’ve been friends for a long time and we still enjoy making music together. I still pinch myself — we’re so lucky to be doing this.”

That said, Hedley’s sonic sensibility continues to evolve.

On Wild Life, the band toyed with a wide array of synths and electronic gizmos, espousing a pop sound that owes much to the slick ’80s but is also very much aligned with the trends of the day.

“I think this time what happened is that the electronic stuff is very electronic, and the analog stuff is very analog,” Rosin said. “We believe that a good song will always win, and after that just dig out the crayons and craft something that keeps us interested as well.”

The disco-fied Crazy For You totally takes its cue from Daft Punk’s Get Lucky, while Headphones is the kind of stadium anthem that will soon have fists pumping in the air in arenas near you.

On the flip side, the melancholy Pocket Full Of Dreams and the wide-eyed and hopeful Wild Life show Hoggard can still write a heart-tugger like a pro.

Produced by Hoggard and longtime collaborator Brian Howes, Hedley’s fourth album is a slick pop record that contains plenty of globe-trotting sonic detours, like the sitar-esque sounds on Mexico or the Afrobeat-meets-Mumford stomp of Heaven In Our Headlights.

“There is such a volume of material on this record,” Rosin said. “Jake has always been prolific — songs either come in bits and pieces or come fully formed like (fan favourites) Perfect and For The Nights. This time there was such a wealth of material. I think our ‘ADD’ has kind of paid off.

“We never want to have all our songs sound the same. Our tunes are all honest and they all come from the same place, but we consistently try to have fun with them, be it in the studio or in concert.”

Ten years in, Hedley’s renewed success continues to be based on its connection with fans of all ages. From We Day initiatives to staying in touch with fans via social media and other channels, Hedley has been lucky to stay alive this long in the digital age.

“The Internet in this day and age makes it easy for a band (to connect with fans),” Rosin said. “It also makes it easy to reveal too much sometimes. You try to keep a little bit of that anonymity because it’s hard to have a private life.

“But it feels cool when someone says on Twitter, ‘Hey, this song helped me get through a tough period’ because, you know, a lot of times those songs helped us get through a tough period, too.”

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Hedley will be performing at Coquitlam’s Hard Rock Casino Vancouver’s grand opening on Dec. 20. The band will be touring across Canada in February and March of next year.

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